BPH in the Press

On Tuesday 27 June, the cover and location of the story of Dan Brown’s upcoming novel called ‘Origin’ was revealed. The novel will be internationally released on 3 October 2017. The story will be themed under the following two questions: Where do we come from? Where are we going? Dutch newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ writes in an article […]

Translation from an article in the Dutch Speakers Academy 2017 magazine. BIBLIOTHECA PHILOSOPHICA HERMETICA Books are constantly in dialogue with each other in the Embassy of the Free Mind The Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, The Ritman Library for short, was once described by the Dutch man of letters and political scientist Aad Nuis (†2007) as a house of […]

We are very proud to present to you… a documentary about our library! Sara Ferro and Chris Weil of Artoldo Pictures visited the library in the spring of 2016, not long before we moved out of the building on Bloemstraat. Their documentary offers a really unique view inside our previous location and the library there. The result […]

Dan Brown donates €300,000 to digitise mystical books that inspired him. Article in The Guardian by Allison Flood, 17-06-2016 Da Vinci Code author gives money to help the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam make collection available online to ‘people around the world’ Dan Brown, whose hero Robert Langdon is able to crack ancient codes with […]

SOURCE: NRC.NL by Claudia Kammer (english translation) Thriller writer Dan Brown drew inspiration for several of his books there. The Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica is now rewarded with a gift of 300,000 Euros. Amsterdam, 16 June 2016 at 10:40 The American author Dan Brown donates 300,000 Euros to the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam. The writer is […]

The Ritman Library on Tripadvisor In the last few years, The Ritman Library’s Hermetic Holiday Trip Advisors have been suggesting alchemical or hermetic destinations to you (and will continue to do so in the future); now The Ritman Library itself has become the focus of a Trip Advisor post! We received a wonderful review by […]

Ritman family treats the neighbourhood to a fabulous display, 15 Years of Fireworks on Amsterdam’s Bloemgracht This New Year’s Eve the bridge at the junction of Bloemgracht and Prinsengracht is again the scene of a thunderous, spectacular and by now traditional fireworks show, Joost Ritman’s annual treat to the neighbourhood. Ritman (1941) was born in […]

The anniversary publication “Divine Wisdom Divine Nature” brought out by the Ritman Library to celebrate four hundred years of Rosicrucian Manifestoes was recently discussed by Egil Asprem on his excellent Heterodoxology blog. Rosicrucian quadricentennary at the BPH This spring marked four hundred years since the publication of the first Rosicrucian manifesto, and as I have […]

The Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam: a Rich Collection of Works on The Egyptian Humanistic Tradition by Rachad Mounir Shoucri The following article appeared in Watani International on February 23rd, 2003. The BPH The Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica (BPH) was founded in 1957 by Joost R. Ritman in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) with the aim of documenting the […]